Council up-beat about refinery impact

The Townsville City Council is confident that increased production at the Yabulu Nickel Refinery in north Queensland would not put added pressure on the environment.

Last week, mining magnate Clive Palmer announced plans to boost production from 30,000 to 70,000 tonnes a year at the Yabulu site.

Townsville Mayor Les Tyrell says the expansion would be done within environmental regulations.

"Most of the work's been done on that, but obviously anyone who wants to expand refineries or manufacturing plants these days has to go through very stringent environmental conditions, and they're set down particularly by the State Government," he said.

"So anything that's done of course has to comply with strict environmental regulations."